Battle of Alberta Part 2: Eskimos at Stampeders - Labour Day Classics

[moon]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Eh? The same Ricky Williams who broke his arm and was injured for basically his entire CFL stint, but still managed close to 5 YPC? The same guy who hasn't been able to get a starting gig in the NFL since his CFL days? That Ricky Williams?

Close to 5 ypc is bad in the CFL.

I am not one who says Ricky didn't pan out so CFL=NFL but using stupid examples of players who didn't make the NFL and are now in the CFL is pretty useless.

Ricky didn't work in the CFL doesn't make him any worse of a player. Joffrey and others didn't work in the NFL doesn't make them terrible either.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

What about the greatest sacriledge of all, a guy like me who thinks the CFL is more exciting and better to watch than the NFL?

Once again the bottomline is that it's all about personal enjoyment regardless of where CFL football ranks on your personal scale. I know people who like watching the WHL over the NHL for a variety of reasons. I find no satisfaction in belittling them for the excess personal enjoyment they gain out of watching the WHL vs. the NHL. Same goes for football. I only hate it when certain people say crap like "The CFL is more exciting and better to watch," when I know that (because I know them personally) the comment is only made as thinly veiled Anti-Americanism or that somehow their national patriotism factors into their judgement of how entertaining a sports league is.

My personal take on the CFL game vs. the NFL game is that the CFL is wider open and lends itself to more big yardage plays that make a well-played Canadian game more exciting to watch. The problem comes in that because the players are not the most talented and well-coached in the world a lot of games tend to have more mistakes and turnovers and turn out to be a "who sucks the least contest' as opposed to two well-polished teams battling it out. In my perfect world I would love to see NFL players play CFL rules football. That would be my perfect brand of football.

[Bertuzzied]

It doesn't matter how much better the NFL players are. Unless they start playing 3 down football on a bigger field you can't really compare the "to to". hehe

The CFL might not have the better players but they have the better game. I can only watch the NFL is when i have money on the game. Otherwise most of their games are unwatchable.

[You Need a Thneed]

One more thing, it should be known that Edmonton gave up on this game, in the third quarter, only down three scores, when they took the time count penalty before giving up the safety. Giving up two points for 20ish yards, when you're already behind by that amount is crazy. The only logical explanation for that play call is that they didn't care any more.

They sort of made an effort after that to LOOK like they were trying to win the game (on side kick after their touchdown, keeping Ray in the game, etc), but they weren't. They had to get a quick score, but didn't even attempt to get one.

It's shameful to the Esks that their coaches gave up so early in the game.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

In my perfect world I would love to see NFL players play CFL rules football. That would be my perfect brand of football.

Exactly what i was thinking. I think the CFL copyrighted the 3 downs thing though.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by moon

Ricky didn't work in the CFL doesn't make him any worse of a player. Joffrey and others didn't work in the NFL doesn't make them terrible either.

Ricky Ray could be effective (probably not great) in the NFL if he was more consistant. Sure, when he's on, he's great, but he also loses a lot of games for the Esks.

Maybe I'm a little bit homerish, but I think Joffrey Reynolds is good enough to make the NFL (and play) - probably not as a starter, but be a good backup. The thing is, he didn't get his chance when he was younger, and now no NFL team is going to pick up a older RB (Joffrey is nearly 30), when he wouldn't have long term potential in the NFL anyway. NFL teams want to develop young players as backups, especially when the effective playing lifetime of an NFL RB is so short. Teams have to constantly have RBs in development.

Sandro DeAngelis would be an upgrade at kicker for a third to half (perhaps even more) of the teams in the NFL.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Ricky Ray could be effective (probably not great) in the NFL if he was more consistant. Sure, when he's on, he's great, but he also loses a lot of games for the Esks.

Maybe I'm a little bit homerish, but I think Joffrey Reynolds is good enough to make the NFL (and play) - probably not as a starter, but be a good backup. The thing is, he didn't get his chance when he was younger, and now no NFL team is going to pick up a older RB (Joffrey is nearly 30), when he wouldn't have long term potential in the NFL anyway. NFL teams want to develop young players as backups, especially when the effective playing lifetime of an NFL RB is so short. Teams have to constantly have RBs in development.

Sandro DeAngelis would be an upgrade at kicker for a third to half (perhaps even more) of the teams in the NFL.

You are a bit homerish on Joffrey. He was given a chance in the NFL and failed to make the cut. In fact he was given three chances in the NFL (Rams, Giants, Browns) and one chance in NFL Europe.

Ricky Ray was also given an NFL chance and couldn't get higher than third string on a Jets team that was pretty thin at QB.

Sandro I agree with.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by rubecube

You are a bit homerish on Joffrey. He was given a chance in the NFL and failed to make the cut. In fact he was given three chances in the NFL (Rams, Giants, Browns) and one chance in NFL Europe.

As far as Joffrey goes, he likely wasn't given the touches he needed to develop in those chances in the NFL. I think his time in the CFL has shown that he would be capable of being a useful backup in the NFL. His size does work a bit against him, though, he's not quite as big as they want RBs to be in the NFL.

Joffrey has shown himself in the CFL to be (IMO) the best RB at breaking tackles to gain extra yards - exactly what they want in the NFL - you can't outrun guy around the corner in the NFL. Of course, in the NFL, the defenders are all a little bigger too, and that make it tougher.

[carom]

I was a huge CFL fan in high school. Went to every home game 3+ years in a row (including a Grey Cup not involving the Stamps). Going to University in Ontario almost totally killed my CFL interest. Most people that I went to school with were from Toronto and these people had the same attitude as a certain special person. This combined with the fact that the Stamps were going through the whole Feterik situation made the CFL little more then a passing interest for me.

From this though I gained an appreciation for NCAA football (and hating the leafs) because I wanted to get a better idea of players that would be coming up in the draft. The whole passion behind college football sucked me in.

All three levels of football (NCAA, NFL, and CFL) have their pros and cons. I prefer to focus on the pros of each.

If I could watch football on TV or live in person I would rank my preferences as:

NCAA>NFL>CFL

Living in Calgary makes watching the first two options in person difficult, so I take what I can get. That being said I had a great time yesterday sitting in Section L as it reminded me of my high school days. Some of my best live sports viewing moments have come at CFL games and I would take live sports over sitting on the couch in almost every circumstance.

One memory I will always remember was back in high school going to a game with friends and sitting behind a bunch of old ti-cats fans. After a few quarters of heckling them one turned around to tell me that ‘if I was their kid they would punish me’, and my response was ‘if I was your kid I would kick my own @ss’. Seems silly now but back in high school it never seemed to get old.

[LockedOut]

I hope they put this game back to 2:30PM next year. Why did it start at 5:30PM this year?

[Bobblehead]

It's a Canadian Fact: Football 143

Contrary to popular belief, Canadian football actually has four downs, not three - but we always punt on the third down just to be safe.

http://www.sctvguide.ca/episodes/sctv_s54.htm

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by lockedout

i hope they put this game back to 2:30pm next year. Why did it start at 5:30pm this year?

tv.

[calgaryrocks]

yea, they should move it back to 2:30 next year, put the to-ham game in primetime if they have to. its a longer drive from edmonton to calgary then toronto to hamilton. the late start may have contributed to a lack of edmonton fans at the game last night (that and the 30,000+ season tickets sold this season)

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

As far as Joffrey goes, he likely wasn't given the touches he needed to develop in those chances in the NFL. I think his time in the CFL has shown that he would be capable of being a useful backup in the NFL. His size does work a bit against him, though, he's not quite as big as they want RBs to be in the NFL.

The NFL is a put up or shut up league, especially for late round draft picks and undrafted free agents. He just didn't show enough potential during his NFL stint.

I don't think his size is a big deal. Joffrey is listed at 5'10", 218 lbs, which is pretty standard for an RB. There are several current and former star NFL RBs that are smaller than Joffrey (Brian Westbrook, Warrick Dunn, Marshall Faulk, Emmitt Smith, Chris Johnson). Joffrey's big problem is that he's not very quick. He doesn't have breakaway speed, and he's not strong enough to be a power back in the NFL.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by calgaryrocks

yea, they should move it back to 2:30 next year, put the to-ham game in primetime if they have to. its a longer drive from edmonton to calgary then toronto to hamilton. the late start may have contributed to a lack of edmonton fans at the game last night (that and the 30,000+ season tickets sold this season)

So why do you want to go back to 2:30?

[calgaryrocks]

haha, as much as i am a stamps fan, i know its a rivalry, and allowing some of them into the park isn't a bad thing. compare a game vs montreal and a game vs sask or edmonton. the game against montreal is still fun, but there aren't alot of thier fans thier (or any eastern based team).
of course having mcmahon stacked full of Stamps fans every game is a great thing too!
when a game gets out of hand like last night, the opposition fans are there for us to...pick on

[octothorp]

Yeah, I was amused at the TSN announcers talking about the lack of Edmonton fans and speculating on possible reasons for this, but never touching on the fact that it likely was the result of the time change, and hence was the fault of their own network. I can just imagine all the disgruntled Esks fans yelling at their TV when that came up.

[The Special One]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Totally agree. Also, many of these people that dis the CFL, saying that it's inferior to the NFL, also watch NCAA football.

NCAA football players get payed nothing, and the talent/ability disparity between the CFL and NCAA football is much greater than than the difference between the NFL and the CFL.

In terms of talent/ability:

NFL >>> CFL >>>>>> NCAA.

That's not to say that any of them is more enjoyable to watch than any other.

I disagree. If you were to take the top eight teams in the NCAA rankings they would kill the CFL teams. We're talking 18-23 year old kids here. That's just the way it is, don't kid yourself.

[The Special One]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Exactly what i was thinking. I think the CFL copyrighted the 3 downs thing though.

Thanks for the signature!

[theExpendable]

WOW did the Stamps decimate the Esk's or what ??? GO STAMPS